Lesson: Designing Playful Products

Ask students if they have ever played with LEGO bricks. Then visit lego.com/en-us/aboutus/lego-group/the-lego-group-history and play the video. Discuss what information they found new or interesting. Tell students they’ll be reading about a new LEGO product called DOTS.

Have students read the article individually. Then pair students up and have them perform a second reading of the text together. Have students discuss the following questions with their partner:

• What are LEGO DOTS? (LEGO DOTS are LEGO sets that are designed to have users build and decorate objects such as pencil holders or picture frames.)

• How do DOTS work? (DOTS are intended to bring a crafty aspect to building with LEGO. Users decorate the objects in their own way.)

• How did the DOTS team create this new product? (First they brainstormed. Then they built models. They used a 3-D printer to make prototypes. They made many different versions of the products before settling on their final versions. Kids tested those versions to help decide which would be best to sell in stores.)

• What did Amy Corbett mean when she said, “We want the pieces we make to be part of the LEGO universe?” (The DOTS pieces need to be able to fit with the existing LEGO bricks so that the products can be used together.)

Have students individually read through the introduction and example of the “Solving Equations With Tape Diagrams” box on page 5. Select volunteers to explain in their own words how the example problem was solved. Then read aloud “Your Turn” question 1 and ask: What expression should you write to express the problem? (3t + t = 12) How many sections should your tape diagram have? (4) What will the total length of the tape diagram be? (12 tiles) So, how many solid-colored tiles are there? (3) Then have students work on the remainder of the “Your Turn” questions individually. Review their answers and tape diagrams as a class.

Provide individual sets of manipulatives for students or have them gather small objects from around their homes such as erasers, marbles, or blocks in two different colors. One color can represent one type of object in the problem, and the other color can represent the other type. Use “Your Turn” question 1 to model the problem with the manipulatives. For example: For each red counter that you put down, put down 3 blue counters. Continue to do this until there are 12 total counters. Then show students the connection between the equation and the tape diagram from the lesson.

Have students pretend to be a LEGO product designer. Challenge them to design their own pack of 32 tiles for a DOTS bracelet. Ask them to list how many of each shape and color tiles their pack will include. Then have them draw a sample bracelet pattern using their list. Students can visit lego.com/en-us/campaigns/dots for examples of bracelet design packs.

Have students model a proportional relationship similar to those in the article but with food. For example, a student might put 8 carrot chips and 24 peas on a plate. Then have them write a problem in the style of the “Your Turn” questions representing the food on their plate.